A Study of Hands and a Study of Liars
by Justanothersinger
Summary: Nagisa's a bad liar and Karma's a good actor. And this is a story of the things they'd learnt about each other. Karmagisa, story takes place before canon timeline.


A study of hands and a study of liars.

An Ansatsu Kyoushitsu fanfiction

 _Was this a strange thing to do?_

He thinks this yet again as his eyes sweep across the room.

Maybe it was. Probably not? It was fairly common for people to stare at each other, out of boredom. Mostly out of boredom and not curiosity though.

He looks around again, but, like usual, he doesn't meet anyone's eyes.

He looks at their desks and tables in fascination, watch as they sweep across the air and hang by the sides of waists, fingers that curled into their palms and hid from the world, even when they didn't mean to.

There was something very strange about hands.

For some reason, he kept looking at them.

When exactly did he develop that habit again? He can't remember.

What he does know is the things that he sees when he looks at hands.

Nervous tics like grasping paper, and metal and tiny objects. The way they hung at the side-sometimes relaxed, sometimes not-when there's nothing they have to do or hold. The way they held objects-across the body, on the side again, out in the air in some cases.

Even their shape, the way they looked differed from person to person.

His mother has slender hands. Small, even.

 _...I should eat a bit more._ He picks up another fry.

There's a slight commotion to his left and he sees Karma there. Of course.

He's talking to someone. ...Oh? He's laughing.

It _seems_ genuine.

His hands are at ease. Half-curled, unaware of the weight of their fingers and carrying not a care in the world.

Karma's was the hardest for him to read for some reason. Maybe because the boy likes putting on an act.

...Yes, he did. It wasn't as obvious because it was only a 'light' act.

Karma told only little white lies. Small little ones about where he went and what he did. As far as he knew, anyway.

Not like him.

Just then, Karma meets his gaze.

He meets it for a while, then remembers to look away.

He's not embarrassed. He's not. He's only curious.

Karma was the hardest to read, so it was only natural that Nagisa would be curious about him.

Hands that looked softer, chubbier at the wrist than he was expecting. Every bit as expressive as their owner, sweeping through the air with exaggerated movements.

Second only to his eyes. Nagisa can't look at his eyes.

He doesn't...really feel comfortable meeting his eyes.

It was slightly borderline creepy, his level of interest. He has to admit that. But then again, staring at people in general was creepy.

He sighs a little and resumes eating.

Unaware that Karma was watching him again.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"What are you doing?" He asks and Nagisa looks up. "Hm?"

"You were staring at your hands." Karma says, "Thinking about something?"

"Oh. Uh. Not really." Nagisa says and he's hesitating again. The same kind of tone that he's all-too-familiar with now and Karma's eyes narrow, though he's still smiling.

He's lying again and Karma doesn't know what he's lying _about._

That was more than a little infuriating to him. Why?

Because he honestly wasn't very good at hiding it.

The two things are _not_ one and the same, he'd found out pretty quickly.

It's fairly easy to break down a liar. Even if you know the most basic info about them, that would mostly be enough to see through the smallest of their lies. And that, in turn, would be enough to unravel the bigger lies.

He didn't even need to try with Nagisa.

But it's a different thing entirely to not know what you've found.

A strange, vague something that lurks at the corners of your mind, a shadowy black where his presence should be. Like he's vanished off the face of the earth, the Nagisa in front of him was a ghost and he's talking to air that's solid, with eyes made of water and knives.

Eyes that smile at him even as he reaches over and-

"...Karma?"

"Hm?"

"...Is something wrong? You've been, uh, staring at me for a while."

"Oh. Didn't notice. Looks like I'm the daydreamer here." Karma says easily, raising his arms and stretching with a well-timed yawn.

It's especially easy to lie to a bad liar.

But for some reason, it's more difficult than usual for him to lie.

To Nagisa anyway.

"Karma?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm listening."

And Nagisa smiles at him again and it's difficult for Karma to look him in the eye. He fights the urge to drop his gaze to his hands.

 _Weird._

But they continue talking about inane things as they always do.

Averting their gazes at just the right moment, so they don't meet.

Or maybe not by coincidence.

But for now, they let it be. Talk of trivial things and ignore the air around them.

For now, this was enough.

For now, at least.

Until they inevitably drift apart.

And they did.

Until next year, where, thrust in the middle of a strange set of circumstances, they're forced to work side-by-side.

Until their eyes finally meet.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

 **this was mostly for me and partly for karmagisa week**

 **i really wanted a study of these two characters thought processes' and it ended up as light fluff amazing**

 **look the fighting chapter in the manga really messed me up ok i wanted fluff**

 **also this was written when i was sick so it may be weird. eh.**

 **thanks for reading!**

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End file.
